Thursday, 24 November 2011

Hello There

Last Tuesday (15 November 2011) we discussed the first steps in overcoming, the challenges of an industry, in a downward spiral. We used the electronics industry as an example of an industry struggling in the current economic conditions. The following analysis was suggested

Once you have completed the suggested analysis, you will have a list of items within (internal factors) and outside (external factors) your organisation that impact on your business. The next stage is to think about the things that will be included in your plan to turn the business around.

To increase the effectiveness of your plan you need to ensure that you adopt a strategic management approach. If you do not have a clear strategy, you will end up with lots of objectives, which do not work together and lead you in lots of different (or competing) directions. The attached article will talk you through strategy and how it is different from objectives http://www.learnmanagement2.com/strategicmanagement.html

You may also like to refer to Michael Porter’s generic strategies article. http://www.learnmarketing.net/generic.htm. Porter’s Generic Strategies provide guidance on common strategies and warns against the danger of trying to do everything for everybody. Ultimately your strategy should:

1) Minimise the impact of factors that affect your business adversely i.e. decrease sales, make it difficult to trade And

2) Maximise all opportunities that increase business and help your business grow.

Once you have decided on your strategy (or strategies) it is time to focus on your product. Based on your analysis decide what you would like to do with your product. It is useful to take your products through a BCG matrix http://www.learnmarketing.net/bcg.htm before deciding what to do with them. A BCG Matrix will help you identify which products are generating money and which products are “dogs”. Do you stick with your existing product offering or is it time to stretch the line? The following article on product objectives will help you consider your options http://www.learnmarketing.net/productobjectives.htm.

Next time we will discuss how to turn your strategies and objectives into an effective plan which will help you start to tackle the challenges posed by the current economic conditions.

Thank you for reading this blog, we hope you enjoyed it. We look forward to your next visit.

Friday, 18 November 2011

We will continue with our theme about marketing helping to deal with a struggling business on Wednesday. In the meantime at LearnMarketing we felt it was useful to blog about the Northern Rock sale to Virgin Money. The bank Northern Rock PLC was nationalised by the UK government in 2008 to prevent it from collapsing and its customers losing their savings. Yesterday it was announced that Virgin Money will purchase Northern Rock by January 2012. It is reported that the bank will be rebranded as Virgin Money.

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Comet sold for £2, Best Buy to close all UK stores by the end of the year and Argos operating profit dropped to £3.4 million from £54.4 million (a large percentage of Argos' profits come from electronics sales). As a member of an electronics marketing department how do you deal with the electronics downward spiral?

A good starting point is to review the environment you are working in. Porter's Five Forces model will help you review the five things that impact on you as an electronics industry retailer http://www.learnmarketing.net/porters.htm

And a PEST analysis will help you work out how to manipulate factors in your external environment http://www.learnmarketing.net/pestanalysis.htm. A PEST analysis is important because the current economic conditions have reduced consumer spending and significantly affected electronics sales. Electronics aren't essential buys, so they will be at the bottom of shopping lists of consumers struggling with money.

There will also be things that you do in your organisation which need to be improved. A stakeholder analysis will reveal micro environmental factors http://www.learnmarketing.net/microenvironment.htm. (such as relationships with suppliers and the competence of employees) that are holding your business back.

Finally the impact of supermarkets and online retailers on profit margins (in the "traditional" electronics retail industry) continues to increase . Tesco now even have TV adverts promoting their technical support teams and consumers have been using electronics goods shops as a "test and view" stop before purchasing the goods they like from online retailers. Online retailers can undercut high street shops as they don't have the costs, rents and rates of a high street shop. A detailed competitor analysis will help you analyse what your competitors are up to http://www.learnmarketing.net/competitoranalysis.htm.

In the our next blog we will discuss how to turn your analysis into a strategic plan that will help your business overcome the challenges, it is currently facing.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

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